


Live Through This (Every Day)

by tessercat (nekonexus)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, living with chronic pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 05:30:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/439674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nekonexus/pseuds/tessercat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark lives through a lot of shit, every day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live Through This (Every Day)

_Five fucking minutes_ , Tony Stark thinks, bracing his arms on the desk so he can shift the muscle tension off his chest and up into his shoulders. Five fucking minutes completeley _pain-free_ out of every goddamn day would be a blessing. 

It's more than he deserves, apparently. 

His chest aches and despite finding new and inventive ways to slouch, it's only proper posture that keeps the ache as a background noise. Discomfort rather than outright pain. Makes it ignorable in favour of far more interesting input signals. 

Other people get to be disabled with chronic pain; Tony Stark is Iron Man. He's a fucking superhero. 

He can't remember the last time someone asked if it hurt. There's probably not a doctor in the world who thinks Tony Stark needs better pain management techniques.

He lets himself groan, faintly, because he's alone in the lab. There's no one to hear except JARVIS.

And maybe sometimes he believes it is a terrible privilege, this technology that keeps him alive, but that doesn't mean he isn't tired of it.

Five fucking minutes. 

...Time's up.

Straighten your spine. Shoulders back. Lift sternu-

...

Lift arc reactor. 

Walk like you own the goddamn world, because it hurts less that way. Nobody gets to see Tony Stark curled in on himself, huddled around the never-ending pain in his chest.

Nobody.

But five fucking pain-free minutes a day would go a long way toward making him feel human again.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a Tumblr post of all things. Read it [here](http://sometonyfeels.tumblr.com/post/25342702180/sometimes-i-just-think-about-the-incredible-amount) if you're curious.


End file.
